Some books are good enough to read again. A few of the books I use for classes are books I have read more than twice and every time I read one of them, I am both reminded of why I thought the book was so good. And I find new nuggets of insight that keep bringing me back to that book the next semester. One of those books is a classic from the 1960s, Langdon Gilkey’s journal-become-book, entitled Shantung Compound.
I read this book first when I was in seminary. And then one of my colleagues used it in a theology class he taught at the seminary where I first taught. I was intrigued how he used the book and so when I began teaching an introductory type theology class, I began to use Gilkey’s book. I find it still does the trick even well into a new century. Oddly enough, the book is historically located. It tells of Gilkey’s nearly three years as an internee in a Japanese prison camp located in China during WW II.
Gilkey had just gone to Beijing right after graduating from college in order to teach in an American school in that Chinese capital city. Soon the Japanese overran China, and Gilkey was rounded up with about 3,000 others representing different groups of folks from the USA and Europe. There were missionaries, business folks, monks and others. They were thrown into very tight quarters and had to begin creating their own kind of culture and civilization. The evolvement of this enterprise is fascinating and only culminates by the end of the war in 1945.
One of the most interesting developments is Gilkey’s close observation of human nature. Gilkey went into this experience full of optimism about human nature. During the course of his imprisonment, he became much more pessimistic and then what I would call realistic. For much of this time, Gilkey had little use for religion because it seemed to him to be impractical. But with the unfolding of time, he became more aware than ever of the crucial role ethics plays in human community. I would take this cue to share and develop more of his insights. They have helped me get clear about my own thinking.
Toward the end of the book, we get Gilkey’s final perspective. He concludes, “Only those, so I mused, who can understand, if not by experience then by sympathy, the full weight of material want and so the value of material goods, can possibly comprehend what the real spiritual issues of life are.” (229) What Gilkey helps me understand in the first place is the necessity of giving attention to the material aspect of life. I recognize how easily it can be dismissed as “merely material.” In our own times we can use the word Gilkey employs to call concern with the material world “secular.” To call something secular implies it is devoid of the spiritual. This is far from the truth.
Gilkey cautions us to be aware of by experience, if possible, and if not experientially, then by sympathy, how significant material wants are to human life. It is easy to think about Maslow’s hierarchy. If we don’t attend to the basics---like food, housing, etc.---then we can never get to the higher levels of human endeavors---like spirituality, wisdom, etc. Ignore the material aspect of life and fail to understand what the real spiritual issues of life are. This is an important caution for me, since I have enough of the material life to live comfortably.
Gilkey continues to develop this in a way that I find useful. He says, “For to wish and seek for justice in material things for one’s neighbors is perhaps the highest of spiritual attainments, since it is the expression in social relations of what it means to love one’s neighbor.” It is creative to use material needs as a way to get to the highest expression of spirituality, namely, love of neighbor. Arriving at love enables Gilkey to turn the corner.
On the other hand, he contends, “At the same time, a healthy material order is possible only where there is enough moral strength to maintain a responsible integrity with regard to property, a just distribution with regards to goods, and as free an exercise of each one’s creativity as is possible.” There may be more to spirituality than morals (ethics), but surely no spirituality if viable without morality. Indeed, one could argue our morals are nothing more than our deeds---spirituality expressed, if you will.
If there is no moral order, then the material world is threatened by corrupt human nature. There will be theft, cheating, etc. No community can survive and thrive in that context. And so it is, Gilkey can conclude, “So do the material and the spiritual realms, the secular and the religious, not exclude but cry out for each other. They are but different aspects of our one created, organic human life.” The material and spiritual are both expressions of our human life. It is important for people like me---who teach spirituality---not to forget that humans are not just spiritual.
From time to time we need to revisit our understanding of human nature.
I read this book first when I was in seminary. And then one of my colleagues used it in a theology class he taught at the seminary where I first taught. I was intrigued how he used the book and so when I began teaching an introductory type theology class, I began to use Gilkey’s book. I find it still does the trick even well into a new century. Oddly enough, the book is historically located. It tells of Gilkey’s nearly three years as an internee in a Japanese prison camp located in China during WW II.
Gilkey had just gone to Beijing right after graduating from college in order to teach in an American school in that Chinese capital city. Soon the Japanese overran China, and Gilkey was rounded up with about 3,000 others representing different groups of folks from the USA and Europe. There were missionaries, business folks, monks and others. They were thrown into very tight quarters and had to begin creating their own kind of culture and civilization. The evolvement of this enterprise is fascinating and only culminates by the end of the war in 1945.
One of the most interesting developments is Gilkey’s close observation of human nature. Gilkey went into this experience full of optimism about human nature. During the course of his imprisonment, he became much more pessimistic and then what I would call realistic. For much of this time, Gilkey had little use for religion because it seemed to him to be impractical. But with the unfolding of time, he became more aware than ever of the crucial role ethics plays in human community. I would take this cue to share and develop more of his insights. They have helped me get clear about my own thinking.
Toward the end of the book, we get Gilkey’s final perspective. He concludes, “Only those, so I mused, who can understand, if not by experience then by sympathy, the full weight of material want and so the value of material goods, can possibly comprehend what the real spiritual issues of life are.” (229) What Gilkey helps me understand in the first place is the necessity of giving attention to the material aspect of life. I recognize how easily it can be dismissed as “merely material.” In our own times we can use the word Gilkey employs to call concern with the material world “secular.” To call something secular implies it is devoid of the spiritual. This is far from the truth.
Gilkey cautions us to be aware of by experience, if possible, and if not experientially, then by sympathy, how significant material wants are to human life. It is easy to think about Maslow’s hierarchy. If we don’t attend to the basics---like food, housing, etc.---then we can never get to the higher levels of human endeavors---like spirituality, wisdom, etc. Ignore the material aspect of life and fail to understand what the real spiritual issues of life are. This is an important caution for me, since I have enough of the material life to live comfortably.
Gilkey continues to develop this in a way that I find useful. He says, “For to wish and seek for justice in material things for one’s neighbors is perhaps the highest of spiritual attainments, since it is the expression in social relations of what it means to love one’s neighbor.” It is creative to use material needs as a way to get to the highest expression of spirituality, namely, love of neighbor. Arriving at love enables Gilkey to turn the corner.
On the other hand, he contends, “At the same time, a healthy material order is possible only where there is enough moral strength to maintain a responsible integrity with regard to property, a just distribution with regards to goods, and as free an exercise of each one’s creativity as is possible.” There may be more to spirituality than morals (ethics), but surely no spirituality if viable without morality. Indeed, one could argue our morals are nothing more than our deeds---spirituality expressed, if you will.
If there is no moral order, then the material world is threatened by corrupt human nature. There will be theft, cheating, etc. No community can survive and thrive in that context. And so it is, Gilkey can conclude, “So do the material and the spiritual realms, the secular and the religious, not exclude but cry out for each other. They are but different aspects of our one created, organic human life.” The material and spiritual are both expressions of our human life. It is important for people like me---who teach spirituality---not to forget that humans are not just spiritual.
From time to time we need to revisit our understanding of human nature.
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